Media: Radio-Canada wants a sports channel, too

Radio-Canada has got back into university sports with a QUFL package this fall. Now it's looking to expand upon that, possibly:

"Radio-Canada announced yesterday is has submitted an application for a new licence to operate a new national French specialty channel to be called RADIO-CANADA SPORTS.

Radio-Canada mentions that this new channel would focus mainly on Canadian content devoting most of its airtime to amateur sports." -- press release

It's very preliminary, mind you. Quebecor Media, which owns TVA, is also eyeing starting a sports channel to compete alongside RDS and RIS. It's purely speculative how much it would cover university sports, but one could foresee expanded football coverage of both the QUFL and CEGEP circuit, since a demand exists. It's not so clear with basketball and hockey.

Radio-Canada might be the horse to back if you want to see more CIS coverage on regular cable. The release makes passing reference to CBCSportsPlus, the English-language channel which has not yet won approval, plus there's the shaky status of another amateur sports channel, as per a William HoustonTruth & Rumourspost from last night that someone totally piggybacked upon.